Legal analyst Lisa Rubin points out on X (formerly Twitter) that past filings from Special Counsel Jack Smith, who brought multiple criminal cases against Donald Trump at the federal level, severely undercut the former president’s recent attempt to distance himself from attorney Sidney Powell.
Powell, who was infamously involved in attempts after the last presidential election to torpedo its results, was criminally charged alongside Trump in Georgia by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, whose case related to targeting of the state’s election results from 2020, when Joe Biden prevailed. Powell has since taken a plea deal, part of which is an agreement to provide testimony, though only as time goes on will the precise contexts for any such testimony become clear, meaning whether she’ll speak against Trump or another defendant. In the meantime, though, Trump got right to it, claiming online that Powell had never been his lawyer.
He himself announced Powell as part of his legal team in 2020. (Even in a campaign context, that traces back to the former president himself.) And as Rubin highlighted, Smith’s indictment of Trump on allegations of attempted election interference relays an episode in which Trump appears to have cooperated with Powell in the filing of a lawsuit in Georgia itself in which she challenged the 2020 results. As is routine for those not actually charged, Powell is not identified by name in the federal indictment, but the individual to which the document refers is understood to be her.
In short, Trump allegedly had his personal assistant Molly Michael send Powell and others criticism of what was presumably Dominion Voting Systems specifically for inclusion in litigation — and Powell seemingly agreed, per the document’s details. “That paragraph alleges that Trump, through his then-Oval Office secretary Molly Michael, directed Powell to include certain information in the lawsuit she filed on Nov. 25, 2020 against GA Gov. Brian Kemp on behalf of several of Trump’s GA electors,” Rubin summarized. Notably, individuals from the larger group of the wannabe electoral college members backing Trump in Georgia were also charged by Willis!
That paragraph alleges that Trump, through his then-Oval Office secretary Molly Michael, directed Powell to include certain information in the lawsuit she filed on Nov. 25, 2020 against GA Gov. Brian Kemp on behalf of several of Trump’s GA electors. 2/
— Lisa Rubin (@lawofruby) October 23, 2023
